Erin Van Guilder
Gifted Support Teacher
Owen J. Roberts School District
West Vincent Elementary School
Chester Springs, PA 19425
(610)469-5108 evanguilder@ojrsd.com
Ever wonder what school would be like if you could be a partner, contributor, designer, and a collaborator of your own learning?
This project allows you to see how technology changes the philosophy and directions of how we teach and how students learn. I am currently a gifted support teacher (ATP teacher) for West Vincent Elementary School. My job is to design enrichment plans (GIEP) and provide instruction to further their learning experience for students demonstrating an academic need.
Currently, I have students ranging from first grade to sixth grade who all have unique and dynamic talents in reading, writing, creativity, critical thinking, math, research, and/or leadership. This variety of talent can really pose a challenge for instruction so differentiation is key in designing individualized programs to meet their enrichment needs. Technology has allowed me to be able to integrate higher level content with tools utilized in society's workforce. I work technology seamless into instruction, assignments, and activities so students can see technology used as a tool to communicate ideas, share knowledge, create new understandings, engage in collaborative partnerships, and flatten the walls of the traditional learning environment.
My students have put together a screencast, using the Smart Notebook Recorder tool, to communicate how technology is integrated into their learning experiences. After viewing the video, please click on the pages on the naviagation bar to get an in-depth view of projects that have taken or are currently taking place in our classroom.
My Goal
To prepare our students for the future, not our past or even the present, To build on their strengths and thirst for knowledge To flatten our 4-walled classroom and see the potentials of learning collaboratively
Nine years ago, a professor of new literacies, by the name of Donald Leu, changed my view, purpose and approach for instruction. Many teachers provided the fundamentals- how to develop lesson plans, manage the classroom and address content and standards, but he gave me vision and inspiration to see teaching as a commitment to meet the ever-changing needs of the my students. His message was clear- prepare all students for life in an age of information, and provide them the tools and techniques vital to living in a time where their future and the world’s future are still unknown. At the time, the task seemed unreal, but throughout the last nine years I have continuously created, revised, adapted, renewed, and reflected on my teaching to create the vision I knew was appropriate and necessary for my students.
Fundamental changes have taken place in our world throughout the last two decades. Over a billion people now access and read information on the Internet. This demand suggests the way we learn has evolved and therefore the literacy needs must adjust as well. Much like the emergence of Web 2.0 Technologies and the progression from a Read Web to a Read/Write Web, instruction needs to adapt and retool its methods from the tradition 3 R’s instruction to embedding the notions of literacy with accessing, processing, and manipulating information, then sharing this new experience with collaborative partners. This process parallels the expectations of today’s business world and with exposure students learn and acquire literacy skills preparing them for the new technological age. As an educator, I continue to learn and grow using my expertise, experience, and willingness to learn on the spot in this ever changing world. I now work towards exposing students to the idea of 21st century literacy, connect them to the wider world, give them an authentic audience for their work, and utilize a new mode of communication.
My first experience with Web 2.0 Technologies was using wikis. One of my colleagues, a tech savvy educator, introduced me to the possibilities of Web 2.0 tools and persuaded me to expand my literacy instruction by incorporating opportunities for global partnerships and communication. Upon seeing a number of online collaborative project options, I evaluated the needs, passions, and weaknesses of my class and decided on a project called the 1001 Flat World Tales Project (http://es1001tales.wikispaces.com/).
The project aimed at providing students with an authentic experience to improve the quality of their written work using self and peer conference revision and editing techniques. Our class started off listening to the story, 1001 Flat World Tales, and formulating persuasive arguments centered on the theme of this book. The group then generated ideas, evaluated potential arguments, and narrowed down persuasive ideas in order to develop rough drafts, which we submitted on our classroom wikispace. From there, students partnered with 4th graders around the globe (Japan, South Australia, and Thailand) and were responsible for reading their partner’s rough drafts and posting revision and editing suggestions to improve the persuasive piece. In addition to posting, they were provided with feedback and revision ideas from their partner to help work towards a polished piece.
This project took the traditional Language Arts “Writing Workshop” into the 21st Century. Our class replaced pencil, paper and word processing and relied on a wiki to revise and peer-edit. We expanded the options for peer response and editing beyond the walls of our classroom by enabling communication with students from around the world. Most importantly, we created an authentic audience which extended globally. Upon reflection, my students shared with me their interest and desire to continue using this method of online drafting and collaborative feedback as their writing workshop. They believed it helped them visually understand the significance of self and group revision and editing for published pieces, gave them an audience outside their classroom, and the peer feedback showed them their work could be seen from many points of view.
Kids Project 2008 (http://electionproject.wikispaces.com/) was another project I facilitated with my students which worked towards understanding the responsibilities of citizens in the political process. Working with 5th and 6th grade classes in Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and California, students formed collaborative news teams responsible for picking an issue relevant to our country and reporting a non-bias analysis of each candidate’s political stance. Students used media such as wikispaces, Teacher Tube, podcasts, newscasts, and the internet to access and process information, rework the information and craft reports demonstrating new understandings with wikspaces and Glogster. They communicated the new information and ideas effectively via Elluminate, a web-conference tool. Students were engaged and motivated to utilize the tools of today to communicate their understandings of the historic United States election process. These tools incorporated reading, researching, writing, creativity, pubic speaking, and listening skills into in a 21st century learning environment.
Currently, I am working on creating online social networks using a Ning with a fellow colleague for aspiring writers and accelerated readers. Working with talented K-6 writers, our goal is to create a private online network to post works in progress, communicate ideas and constructive feedback, and collaborate with other writers in a protected and encouraging environment. For the accelerated readers, we are developing video conference literature discussions centered on interpretative questions and understandings. As we look ahead to rolling this out with our classes, we have discussed the essential new literacies instruction in addition to traditional reading and writing instruction needed to facilitate this opportunity.
By embedding the notion of traditional reading and writing with new technologies, I continue to create learning experiences which meet student needs, expand their strengths, and incorporate the tools necessary to prepare them for a future which continues to redefine itself.
Gifted Support Teacher
Owen J. Roberts School District
West Vincent Elementary School
Chester Springs, PA 19425
(610)469-5108
evanguilder@ojrsd.com
Ever wonder what school would be like if you could be a partner, contributor, designer, and a collaborator of your own learning?
This project allows you to see how technology changes the philosophy and directions of how we teach and how students learn. I am currently a gifted support teacher (ATP teacher) for West Vincent Elementary School. My job is to design enrichment plans (GIEP) and provide instruction to further their learning experience for students demonstrating an academic need.
Currently, I have students ranging from first grade to sixth grade who all have unique and dynamic talents in reading, writing, creativity, critical thinking, math, research, and/or leadership. This variety of talent can really pose a challenge for instruction so differentiation is key in designing individualized programs to meet their enrichment needs. Technology has allowed me to be able to integrate higher level content with tools utilized in society's workforce. I work technology seamless into instruction, assignments, and activities so students can see technology used as a tool to communicate ideas, share knowledge, create new understandings, engage in collaborative partnerships, and flatten the walls of the traditional learning environment.
My students have put together a screencast, using the Smart Notebook Recorder tool, to communicate how technology is integrated into their learning experiences. After viewing the video, please click on the pages on the naviagation bar to get an in-depth view of projects that have taken or are currently taking place in our classroom.
My Goal
To prepare our students for the future, not our past or even the present,
To build on their strengths and thirst for knowledge
To flatten our 4-walled classroom and
see the potentials of learning collaboratively
Nine years ago, a professor of new literacies, by the name of Donald Leu, changed my view, purpose and approach for instruction. Many teachers provided the fundamentals- how to develop lesson plans, manage the classroom and address content and standards, but he gave me vision and inspiration to see teaching as a commitment to meet the ever-changing needs of the my students. His message was clear- prepare all students for life in an age of information, and provide them the tools and techniques vital to living in a time where their future and the world’s future are still unknown. At the time, the task seemed unreal, but throughout the last nine years I have continuously created, revised, adapted, renewed, and reflected on my teaching to create the vision I knew was appropriate and necessary for my students.
Fundamental changes have taken place in our world throughout the last two decades. Over a billion people now access and read information on the Internet. This demand suggests the way we learn has evolved and therefore the literacy needs must adjust as well. Much like the emergence of Web 2.0 Technologies and the progression from a Read Web to a Read/Write Web, instruction needs to adapt and retool its methods from the tradition 3 R’s instruction to embedding the notions of literacy with accessing, processing, and manipulating information, then sharing this new experience with collaborative partners. This process parallels the expectations of today’s business world and with exposure students learn and acquire literacy skills preparing them for the new technological age. As an educator, I continue to learn and grow using my expertise, experience, and willingness to learn on the spot in this ever changing world. I now work towards exposing students to the idea of 21st century literacy, connect them to the wider world, give them an authentic audience for their work, and utilize a new mode of communication.
My first experience with Web 2.0 Technologies was using wikis. One of my colleagues, a tech savvy educator, introduced me to the possibilities of Web 2.0 tools and persuaded me to expand my literacy instruction by incorporating opportunities for global partnerships and communication. Upon seeing a number of online collaborative project options, I evaluated the needs, passions, and weaknesses of my class and decided on a project called the 1001 Flat World Tales Project (http://es1001tales.wikispaces.com/).
The project aimed at providing students with an authentic experience to improve the quality of their written work using self and peer conference revision and editing techniques. Our class started off listening to the story, 1001 Flat World Tales, and formulating persuasive arguments centered on the theme of this book. The group then generated ideas, evaluated potential arguments, and narrowed down persuasive ideas in order to develop rough drafts, which we submitted on our classroom wikispace. From there, students partnered with 4th graders around the globe (Japan, South Australia, and Thailand) and were responsible for reading their partner’s rough drafts and posting revision and editing suggestions to improve the persuasive piece. In addition to posting, they were provided with feedback and revision ideas from their partner to help work towards a polished piece.
This project took the traditional Language Arts “Writing Workshop” into the 21st Century. Our class replaced pencil, paper and word processing and relied on a wiki to revise and peer-edit. We expanded the options for peer response and editing beyond the walls of our classroom by enabling communication with students from around the world. Most importantly, we created an authentic audience which extended globally. Upon reflection, my students shared with me their interest and desire to continue using this method of online drafting and collaborative feedback as their writing workshop. They believed it helped them visually understand the significance of self and group revision and editing for published pieces, gave them an audience outside their classroom, and the peer feedback showed them their work could be seen from many points of view.
Kids Project 2008 (http://electionproject.wikispaces.com/) was another project I facilitated with my students which worked towards understanding the responsibilities of citizens in the political process. Working with 5th and 6th grade classes in Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and California, students formed collaborative news teams responsible for picking an issue relevant to our country and reporting a non-bias analysis of each candidate’s political stance. Students used media such as wikispaces, Teacher Tube, podcasts, newscasts, and the internet to access and process information, rework the information and craft reports demonstrating new understandings with wikspaces and Glogster. They communicated the new information and ideas effectively via Elluminate, a web-conference tool. Students were engaged and motivated to utilize the tools of today to communicate their understandings of the historic United States election process. These tools incorporated reading, researching, writing, creativity, pubic speaking, and listening skills into in a 21st century learning environment.
Currently, I am working on creating online social networks using a Ning with a fellow colleague for aspiring writers and accelerated readers. Working with talented K-6 writers, our goal is to create a private online network to post works in progress, communicate ideas and constructive feedback, and collaborate with other writers in a protected and encouraging environment. For the accelerated readers, we are developing video conference literature discussions centered on interpretative questions and understandings. As we look ahead to rolling this out with our classes, we have discussed the essential new literacies instruction in addition to traditional reading and writing instruction needed to facilitate this opportunity.
By embedding the notion of traditional reading and writing with new technologies, I continue to create learning experiences which meet student needs, expand their strengths, and incorporate the tools necessary to prepare them for a future which continues to redefine itself.